The federal government has imposed a 555 million naira fine on Fidelity Bank plc for data breaches.
The fine was imposed by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), supervised by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovations and Digital Economy.
The National Commissioner of the NDPC, Dr Vincent Olatunji disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday at a Stakeholders validation workshop on the Nigeria Data Protection Act General Application and Implementation Directive.
Fidelity Bank plc has 14 days to pay up the fine upon receipt of the letter from the NDPC.
According to Dr Olatunji, the fine was imposed on Tuesday (yesterday) after a series of efforts geared towards enforcement of the NDPC Act 2023 and ensuring industrial harmony, but the bank’s authorities proved difficult during investigations.
Olatunji explained that Fidelity Bank not only violated the NDPC Act, 2023, but aggravated its matter by its arrogance towards constituted authority, and was fined 555 million naira representing 0.1 percent of its annual gross revenue in 2023.
He added that the fine was the highest fine to be issued by the commission, asserting that the bank showed poor cooperation during the NDPC’s investigation.
Olatunji explained that Fidelity Bank not only violated the NDPC Act, 2023, but aggravated its matter by its arrogance towards constituted authority, and was fined 555 million naira representing 0.1 percent of its annual gross revenue in 2023.
He added that the fine was the highest fine to be issued by the commission, asserting that the bank showed poor cooperation during the NDPC’s investigation.
Olatunji said: “Data protection compliance is important and we have stated that non-compliance will be punished. We have penalties that range from N10m or up to 2 percent of gross earnings for the previous year.
“The whole thing is about awareness for people to be aware of what is in the law, and the data protection ecosystem in Nigeria is still evolving, which is why we need to create more awareness as much as we can to avoid ambiguity.
“We have a PPP model to ensure compliance, we have licensed some professionals on data protection, that’s the Data Protection Compliance Organisations of Nigeria.
“We have licensed about 194 of them, and they go around organizations, private sectors, to take them through compliance in terms of crafting their privacy policy, creating awareness within the organizations.
